Daily Comfort

January 15

I will place my rainbow in the clouds, and it will become a guarantee of the covenant between me and the earth. — Gen 9:13 NET

There can be no rainbow–unless it is raining. So we cannot see the brightest glory of God’s grace, without entering into the experiences of trial. We can learn the full preciousness of the divine promises, only in the circumstances of need for which they were given.

A young friend told me that she had seen richer revealings of the love of Christ in the weeks she had been in her sick-room, than in all the former years of her life. Words of God which she had known from childhood, had flashed out then for the first time in the rich splendor of their meaning! There had been no clouds in her life before–all was health and happiness, and she had not seen the rainbow hues.

The same is true of all the divine comforts; we never can know the best of their meaning–until the sorrow comes in which they are meant to give strength. A beatitude reads: “Blessed are those who mourn–for they shall be comforted.” We cannot receive the comfort–until we mourn. Every Christian who has passed through sorrow understands this. In the deepening darkness–the lights in the heavenly promises flashed out bright and clear, showing him for the first time–the fullness of their blessed comfort.